Springtime for Jounin
by RagsOfAsh
Summary: Gai and Kakashi reflect on their springtime of youth over sake at a local restaurant. Hint of KakaRin.


"The springtime of youth is so special, Kakashi!" The loud voice boomed across the room as the silver headed Jounin sighed and flipped another page in his orange book. By now, everyone else in the restaurant had either ignored them or left after a very annoying Gai bounced in on their conversations. However, the store owner wasn't about to ask them to leave; while Gai might comply with an over exuberant apology, the Copy-nin was a little more than intimidating when he wanted to be. One look and he could seethe bloodlust - thanks to ANBU of course.

The Jounin smirked and glanced at the other in his green body suit as Gai took another shot of Sake. "It's a great thing for them to have moved on - but they will always be my little students!" A tear gathered in the corners of his eyes and Kakashi growled, stuffing his nose in his book. Both of their teams were off on missions as chunin and Jounin now; and being completely alone on a night like this wasn't a good idea for two ex-ANBU. They had been there for hours, not wanting to leave the company of the restaurant and going through Sake and mainly listening to Gai tell stories of his youth and of his team, in that not so quiet voice that he had.

It wasn't until his companion became suddenly quiet that Kakashi fully turned in the table to face the Jounin. Gai had a small blush on his cheeks and downed another shot of burning liquid, a frown on his normally happy face. A lazy black eye then noticed the eleven empty bottles of sake and the two half empty bottles, one firmly in the fist of the bushy eye browed man. "In my springtime," He began slowly and quietly, "I found the one that made the wind blow, a beauty of unfathomable grace. She was a shin obi of the mist and we met on one fateful night in the grass country."

Kakashi wrinkled his nose, not sure he wanted to hear exactly what had happened next and yet knowing that his 'eternal rival' was being so out of character that it warranted his silence on the issue. In respect, he tucked the orange book into his pocket and leaned forward on his elbows.

Gai continued, swirling the liquid in the wooden cup and watching with half lidded eyes as it splashed against the rim, "We dated when we could; but both of us being shin obi, we didn't get much time free. One night, as we lay awake watching the sparkling stars - I slipped a ring into her hand and asked her to spend the rest of our lives, past the springtime of our youth - together. She accepted." He half smiled, "That was a beautiful night." He gulped down the liquid in the cup and slammed it onto the table, "She was on a mission the next morning - and never made it back." From his pocket he produced a ring, and watched as it glistening in the dim light from the poorly lit corner they were in, "Her superior gave this to me the day of the memorial service." He poured the sake into his cup, "My springtime died with her."

Kakashi sighed lowly as he watched his friend drown his sorrows in the clouding liquid that all shin obi had come to adore as a close companion. It wasn't until Gai asked a question that the silver headed Jounin poured his first glass of sake. "When did your springtime die?"

"Who said my springtime died, I'm the picture of health." The copy-nin sighed at the Jounin disbelieving look and downed the cup of sake while reaching to the other half empty bottle to fill the glass again. "She was a teammate. Pink hair like strawberries and green eyes like emeralds." He put a palm over the head plate that covered his sharingan and let out another sigh. He didn't want to be open to Gai, but after that many bottles of sake he probably wouldn't remember anything in the morning anyway. "She'd look at me sometimes and nothing else mattered. She helped me through my… through some family issues." He didn't want to let on that his fathers suicide still bothered him and he found it difficult to look at Gai, so he settled for the back of his gloved hand. "We were still both young, almost eighteen - if that - when we found out she was pregnant." To his credit, Gai was silent, which made it easier for Kakashi to think he was talking to a brick wall. "We hid it, but Hokage-sama found out and put her on medical leave so that there wouldn't be any stress on the baby and mother. But, I was still sent on missions; we asked him to keep it a secret from everyone - after losing an Uchiha in my younger years I wasn't exactly Mr. Popular." He half smirked beneath his mask.

His dropped his voice to an almost whisper, "When I came back after a long ANBU mission - Hokage-sama took me aside and told me that the mother wasn't doing well and that she was in the hospital." He squeezed the cup in his hand, "The next day she gave birth to a little boy with silver hair and bright green eyes." Kakashi shut his watering eye and took a deep breath, "He made it three hours, but his lungs weren't fully developed and he died. His mother," The deep voice cracked and he swallowed hard, "She had lost a lot of blood with the difficult birth and something had gone wrong inside her. The medics worked until morning on her but -" He felt his body shake, "I held her as she left me to join our son."

A large hand covered his and a sake bottle clicked against the one in his hand, "Drink to the Springtime." Both nodded and lifted the bottles to their mouths to finish the rest of the bottles off, then parted in a light wave.

Kakashi watched his reflection in the mirror at his apartment, the red eyes swirled in its socket and shot pain through him with every motion. He turned; the tattoo on his arm was covered with long scars that went deliberately through the middle. Kakashi cursed the ANBU tattoo lowly as he pulled a Kunai from the sink and counted the scars out loud, "Seven, Eight, Nine…" The Kunai was placed at the top of the tattoo and drug to the bottom, blood seeping from the deep wound that would definitely scar. "Happy Tenth Anniversary, Rin. As promised, ten years out of ANBU."

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_Oo That's really all I gotta say. Gai is out of character - but he's drunk. shrug_

Whatcha think, eh? Reviews very welcome if you have the time. 


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